The purpose of this study is to explore the relation of mother-adolescent daughter interaction patterns and ways of handling conflict to the adolescent's compliance with the diabetic regimen. The study is based on the premise that non-compliance with treatment prescriptions is meaningful within the social context of the family and is both a reflection and an outgrowth of interactional styles between parents and adolescents over significant interpersonal issues. Specifically, it is posited that the manner in which conflicts between mothers and their diabetic adolescent daughters are handled influences the adolescent's ability to adjust to the requirements of the diabetic regimen. Investigations of compliance with medical prescriptions by chronically ill adolescents in general has received little systematic inquiry. There is considerable indirect evidence, however, that studying interaction patterns within families of diabetic adolescents may facilitate an understanding of the adolescent's non-compliance with treatment prescriptions. While the studies to date on family factors and diabetic management provide valuable sources of hypotheses, they have been largely descriptive and impressionistic and have not explored in a systematic manner the multiple feedback systems between parents and diabetic children, especially in relation to medical compliance. Unlike other studies in this area, the present study seeks to functionally analyze the overt behavior of management and non-management problem diabetic adolescents and their mothers as they deal with conflictual and stressful interpersonal issues. The study should aid in elucidating those patterns which facilitate or hinder successful medical management so that appropriate interventions to modify these transactions can be developed. The present study will also add toward the building of theories of both adjustment to chronic illness in adolescence and compliance with medical prescriptions in adolescence.